The present invention relates to athletic apparel and equipment, and in particular athletic garments and pads.
Many athletic garments are preferably worn fixed to underlying or adjacent equipment such as athletic pads. For example, many football athletes prefer to fix any loose ends of the football jersey so that the jersey is extremely tight around the shoulder or rib pads, minimizing any loose portions of jersey that are particularly accessible to opponents. Typically, the upper portion of the jersey is heavily taped to underlying pads, in particular to shoulder pad assemblies, using two-sided adhesive tape.
The problems associated with taping athletic garments are numerous. For example, taping is a relatively slow and cumbersome process that often takes significant time. Football players, for example, may spend an hour or more having jerseys taped. Moreover, athletic or other tape used for this purpose is often not re-usable, creating wasted tape and added expense. Even when taped properly, taped jerseys and other garments are often uncomfortable due to pinching or binding of the tape or the garment itself, and the tape tends to fail due to wet conditions or from perspiration.
An athletic garment and pad system according to the present invention includes an athletic garment having at least one section of elastomeric raised loop fabric. The system also includes an athletic pad or pad assembly including at least one male hook substrate piece. The section of elastomeric raised loop fabric may be stretched and fixed to the male hood substrate piece to secure the garment to the athletic pad.
Utilization of the system according to the present invention reduces and in many cases eliminates the need for taping by providing a conjunctive or alternative method of securing the athletic garment.